Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. Materials commonly recovered by mining include bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, iron, gold, lead, manganese, magnesium, nickel, phosphate, platinum, rock salt, silver, tin, titanium, uranium, and zinc. Other highly useful materials that are mined include clay, sand, cinder, gravel, granite, and limestone. Any material that cannot be grown from agricultural processes must be mined. Mining in a wider sense can also include extraction of petroleum and natural gas.

History

The oldest known mine in the archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland. At this site, which has a radiocarbon age of 43,000 years, paleolithic humans mined for the iron-containing mineral hematite, which they presumably ground to produce the red pigment ochre.

Related Topics:
Swaziland - Radiocarbon - Paleolithic - Iron - Hematite - Pigment - Ochre

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Sites of a similar age where Neandertals may have mined flint for weapons and tools have been found in Hungary.

Related Topics:
Neandertal - Flint - Hungary

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Another early mining operation was the turquoise mine operated by the ancient Egyptians at Wady Maghareh on the Sinai Peninsula. Turquoise was also mined in pre-Columbian America in the Cerillos Mining District in New Mexico, where a mass of rock 200 feet (60 m) in depth and 300 feet (90 m) in width was removed with stone tools; the mine dump covers 20 acres (81,000 m²).

Related Topics:
Turquoise - Ancient Egyptians - Sinai Peninsula - Pre-Columbian - New Mexico

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Black gun powder in mining was first time used in a shift Bartolomej in mines under the town Banská ?tiavnica, Slovakia in 1627. There is 12000 kilometers of tunnels under this small town drived for a 1000 years.

Related Topics:
Gun powder - Mining - Banská ?tiavnica - Slovakia

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